bruceb news

This week’s installment of Annoying Checkboxes is sponsored by Microsoft, which has already brought you the annoying checkbox to install the “Bing Toolbar” – the one that has to be unchecked every single time you install an update to Java. Since Java is updated approximately once every 72 hours, you’ve probably seen that annoying checkbox frequently. (If you open Internet Explorer and have a useless “Bing Toolbar” at the top of the screen, then you missed the checkbox.)

Now I’m training myself to watch out for a new Annoying Checkbox that turns up when Microsoft Office Home […] continued

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Here’s a nice notebook at a nice price: the Asus U43Jc, a 14” laptop that can be purchased from Amazon until September 5 for $999 – with a $150 Amazon gift card thrown in, effectively bringing the price down to $849. That’s quite good for a notebook with these specs!

The notebook features a cover and palm rest made out of bamboo, making the case look very sleek in a furniture sort of way. (It also lets Asus tout how environmentally swell it is.) It’s got great parts inside: an Intel Core i5 processor; 4Gb of RAM; […] continued

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Previously:
OneNote 2010 – Introduction
OneNote 2010 – Outlook Integration

Stick with me. I’m going to describe the feature built into OneNote 2010 that works so well – quietly, seamlessly – that it deserves to be noticed, used, and celebrated.

OneNote 2010 is designed to be used on multiple computers. When you create a notebook, the first option is to store the notebook online. It’s not a requirement but it’s highly recommended.

It doesn’t change your use of OneNote. The program opens and you can use it, regardless of whether you’re online or offline.

But when you’re […] continued

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Previously:
OneNote 2010 – Introduction

OneNote 2010 has been tightly integrated into Outlook, as well as Word, Powerpoint, and Internet Explorer. It opens up a completely new way to use OneNote – almost as an accessory to those programs rather than a standalone program, with all of OneNote’s power to hold different kinds of information (notes, pictures, links, screenshots) and link those notes to items in the other programs.

OUTLOOK

The easiest example: think about attending a meeting that’s on your Outlook calendar. When you highlight the appointment in your calendar, the ribbon bar includes a […] continued

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Microsoft OneNote 2010 is the best reason to buy Microsoft Office 2010. It was already a hidden treasure in Office 2007, and the improvements in the new version take it to a new level. OneNote 2010 is so good that you should consider buying Office 2010 just to get it. Microsoft has demonstrated its faith in OneNote by including it in every version of the Office 2010 suite.

In the next couple of days, I’m going to highlight some of the new features in OneNote 2010 that make it so useful.

First, a brief introduction for those […] continued

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Previously:
Displaying Contacts In The Outlook Address Book
Sorting The Outlook Address Book By Last Name

For some reason the ribbon bar in Word 2007 and Word 2010 does not have a button to push that brings up the Outlook Address Book for inserting addresses into Word documents, envelopes, and the like. It’s an easy fix but I don’t understand why it has to be fixed. I thought people did this all the time – store addresses in Outlook, then drop them into Word with a single click, right? Humph.

Word 2007 and 2010 have a “Quick […] continued

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Microsoft is finalizing a new version of Windows Live Sync, its free software for syncing files among different computers. The new version replaces the two overlapping programs available from Microsoft for the last few years, Windows Live Sync and Live Mesh, combining features from both of them.

This should be good news. Microsoft has declared that the entire resources of the company are being devoted to moving us to the cloud. The file syncing program could have been an important part of that transition to a new way of working with our files that is less tied to […] continued

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Previously:
Office 2010 – Technology Guarantee
Microsoft Office 2010 – Suite Comparisons
Should You Buy Microsoft Office 2010?

Microsoft Office 2010 went on sale Tuesday at local stores and through online retailers. My articles, linked above, describe some of the differences between the different versions; in the next few weeks I’ll tell you about new features.

If you want to do some research, here are three places to start.

• Microsoft’s Office home page
• Paul Thurrott’s exhaustive collection of reviews and screen shots
• Eric Ligman’s list of links to Office 2010 resources

There are […] continued

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Microsoft has introduced Office Web Apps, free online versions of Office programs that can be used entirely inside a web browser. Visit http://office.live.com to take a look at technology that will change our world.

That sounds breathless and exciting, right? It’s not hyperbole. You are living through a long-term shift away from dependence on individual computers and toward shared resources that live online and can be accessed from any of our devices, big and small.

The problem is that this first incarnation of Office Web Apps is pretty weak. You have to squint to see the future […] continued

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I want you to take a look at a demo of Google Docs. It’s a fast way to be introduced to the concept of editing and storing documents online.

When I look in my crystal ball, my prediction has changed from last year. It now looks likely that small businesses and small law firms will not be storing any significant quantities of documents online in the near future. You’ll be using online files as a convenience, not as your primary file storage. I had hoped to be saying something different but Microsoft has dropped the ball […] continued

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